Customer Reviews

Great Opera Ensembles

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Unlike your first reviewer, I really enjoyed well over half the items on this double CD set - a quite unique and unusual anthology. All five items with Beniamino Gigli are excellent. I love the Martha quartet "Mag der Himmel euch vergeben" from 1928 with the incomparable Helge Roswaenge and Polish soprano Hedwig Debicka, and the rare recording of the La Boheme Act 111 quartet "Dunque e propio finita" with the husband/wife team of Ferruccio Tagliavini and Pia Tassinari. I could not myself find any great discrepancies - in any case all the singers are fine.Some of the items have to grow on you - a good thing.

Don't waste your money, if like me, you value accurate & reliable liner notes.
I was excited to find a recording of opera ensembles - they're hard to find, and it is fine that they are archival recordings as opposed to contemporary recordings.
I quickly realized that the liner notes' listing of tracks was inaccurate; while I love opera I do not know every aria and the opera from which it comes; so having accurate liner notes/listings is important to me. Fortunately, I know enough that I knew that what I was listening to was not what the notes said. Months ago, I emailed the company that put out the CD, requested an accurate list of tracks, and have receive no response of any kind. If you're an expert and recognize every ensemble, then this will be ok; but if you're like me, and value accuracy, don't give these people your money.